Must-See Exhibitions in NYC
From Klimt to old Edo, from Himalayan art to 1930s Harlem, NYC museums have something for everyone. Here’s a look at some of the must-see exhibitions this year.
See how Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract compositions come to life in a darkened gallery, masterfully blending cutting-edge projection technology with evocative music. Also, explore mud-bodied sculptures by artist Ali Cherri.
1. Museum of the City of New York
New York City is the world’s leading metropolis and this museum fosters understanding of its distinctive character. Its collection features a variety of rotating exhibitions, as well as two core galleries that take visitors through the full sweep of NYC’s history.
Meet historic figures who embody the city’s diversity through interactive elements in these two galleries. You’ll find person-sized digital totems, as well as touch screen interactives that feature the life stories of 70 NYC notables and the worlds they inhabited.
2. Museum of Modern Art
Established in 1929, this museum was founded by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and her friends. The museum’s collection is considered one of the most comprehensive in the world! It houses works from progressive tendencies, including Cubist and Surrealist paintings. The museum is also home to Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
Alfred Barr, MoMA’s first director, saw the museum as a laboratory and sought to explore modern art across a wide range of disciplines. His vision was expanded by later curators, who embraced design, performance art and film. The Museum continues to expand its reach, reaching beyond Western art to embrace global perspectives.
3. Whitney Museum of American Art
Founded in 1930, the Whitney Museum of American Art is home to one of the world’s foremost collections of 20th-century American art. The museum holds about 15 exhibitions a year, including single-artist and group shows, historical surveys, and lifetime retrospectives.
The Whitney was the first museum to focus on exhibiting the work of living American artists. This was thanks to founder Gertrude Whitney and her longtime curator Juliana Force.
Located between the High Line and Hudson River, the Whitney’s current building in the Meatpacking District vastly increases its exhibition and programming space. Its famous biennial is a long-running survey of contemporary American art.
4. National Museum of African American History and Culture
Often called the Blacksonian, this Smithsonian Institution museum offers visitors a lens through which to understand America. Located on the National Mall, its exhibitions commemorate African American history and culture.
The museum’s brighter culture and community galleries depart from the chronological narrative of a typical history museum, featuring art, music, sports, and more. You can see everything from the famed Mothership to the costumes worn by performers on Broadway.
Gallery exhibitions explore the fraught approach to social issues by artists of the New Negro era, as they confronted issues like queer identity, colorism and class tensions. Romare Bearden’s luminous collage series The Block (1970) from the museum collection is one of the featured pieces.
5. Museum of the City of New York
At the top of Museum Mile, this iconic NYC institution offers a wide variety of ways to explore the city’s past, celebrate its present, and imagine its future. A new gallery called New York at Its Core invites visitors to learn about the people who make the city tick, from activists whose efforts have shaped social change to those whose contributions are more quiet but no less important.
The gallery also features “person-sized digital totems” that tell the stories of 70 historic figures who represent the city’s characteristic diversity. Plus, a gallery called Future City Lab asks visitors to consider the challenges the city will face over the next 100 years.
6. The Museum of Broadway
The Museum of Broadway is designed to be a fun and engaging experience for theater beginners and experts alike. Its two floors feature costumes, props, renderings and other artifacts that tracing the history of the theater industry from its origins to present day.
The exhibit is divided into three sections: the Map Room, a timeline and a “making of” section. Each section highlights a number of productions that changed the landscape of Broadway, pushing creative boundaries and challenging social norms along the way.
The timeline panels are text heavy and extremely detailed, making them difficult to read. They also skew toward musicals over plays, which perhaps speaks to reflex expectations of what is considered Broadway.